Our third digital press conference took place on July 15, 2008 and it was a smashing success. Dozens of bloggers, podcasters and Internet radio DJs dropped in to hang out, eat, and drink with over 20 artists. Radio stations were set up and streaming live from the Blog Talk Radio and on Bumpskey Internet Radio and artists lined up in the hallways to be interviewed on tape and on camera by new media makers posted around the apartment.

Special Thanks To Our Sponsors:
Reverb Nation
Rive Video Promotion
Rock Ridge Music

New Media Makers & Friends Who Attended & Interviewed Artists At The Event:
The Amsterdam News
Blog Talk Radio – On The Road With John & Rick
Both Sides Of The Surface Podcast
Bumpsky Internet Radio
Digital Freedom Campaign
Friggin Fabulous Radio
The Gigometer
Hit Records Nightlife Video Show
Mikeypod Podcast
New York Sun Podcast
Ning.com
Queens Artists Podcasts
Radio Crystal Blue
Rubyfruit Radio Podcast

I asked the staff and the summer ‘08 interns to each write a synopsis of their impressions of the DPC and here is what they said:

Christina & Ariel
Our 3rd annual Digital Press Conference turned out to be a HIT! With artists and tons of social media continuing to bustle into the doors all afternoon and into the evening in a stead stream. Everyone was greeted with drinks (note to self: buy more beer next year) and appetizers and all wore big SMILING faces. Rive Video had their cameras set up and all ready to go with artists in out for interviews till after 9 PM. We had the wonderful Eddie Muentes as the host of Rive’s tapings and he kept the energy through the roof throughout the night. Artists were able to go through a circuit of about 6-7 interviewers each. First stop for most of the artists were On the Road with Rick and John LIVE . John and Rick interviewed everyone and broadcasted live onto Blog Talk Radio. Bumpskey Internet Radio also phoned in and stayed on the line for almost five hours (he would have talked all night but his cable dropped out) interviewing most of the artists in attendance.

All artists also had the pleasure of interviewing with Friggin; Fabulous Radio host Nick Ciavatta. Nick also interviewed Rock Ridge Music artist Lauren Ianuzzi. The sultry singer made her rounds in the circuit of interviews. Lou with Reverb Nation beamed with happiness and walked around greeting everyone and Lou thanks for being a great sport about the lack of wifi in the main room.

Dan Herman with Radio Crystal Blue was stationed in the Kitchen recording his interviews and he also got the privilege of recordig some live impromptu jams from the artists who brought their guitars along.

Rubyfruit Radio, and MikeyPod Podcast, had pole position in front of the air conditioner and they interviewed a steady stream of artists in between station ID takes with Eddie.

Stefan and Scott from our team were also on hand to interview artists on camera (watch for testimonials coming to the site soon).

Artists were able to connect with social media face to face in a special way that makes us proud to do our jobs and it was extra special for us because we got to meet some people who only exsist for us virtually.

We are looking forward to Digital Press Conference edition 4 at CMJ 2008!

Sara
Ariel Publicity’s Digital Press Conference on July 15th was an event no one should have missed out on. The combination of Ariel Publicity, Rive Video Promotions, Rock Ridge Music, and Reverb Nation proved to be a great success.

I had the opportunity to attend and work this event due to the fact that I am one of Ariel’s interns. As if being an intern for Ariel isn’t amazing enough, being at the Press Conference made it over the top. I had the opportunity to go around and interact with all different types of people from rockers to podcasters.

One of my favorite moments during the entire event was when I was preparing hors d’oeuvres in the kitchen. Dan from Radio Crystal Blue was doing interviews for a select few artists in the kitchen while I was there. I got to listen to Kati Mac’s interview and I felt like I was getting my own personal concert without her knowing it. She has a beautiful voice and listening to her sing while playing the guitar is something I will always think about when the Press Conference comes to mind.

If you missed out on Ariel Publicity’s Digital Press Conference this year, make sure to cancel everything to go to it next year. You would be crazy not to.

Ariel Publicity’s Digital Press Conference was a chance for musicians to connect with podcasters and bloggers face to face. In each room there were different stations set up. The musicians moved from room to room doing interviews and broadcasts with each station. If they were not at one of the stations, they were enjoying some of the appetizers and drinks while socializing with others attending the event. The Press Conference was a way to give back to musicians and podcasters and new media makers, and a chance for everyone to kick back and have some fun. Anyone that was at the event would agree.

Joanne
Ariel Publicity’s Digital Press Conference was immensely successful and demonstrated clearly how an innovative and clever approach to PR allows for stellar results within the changing music industry.

Over 20 of Ariel’s 90+ clients attended the event along with dozens of representatives from various New Media outlets–bloggers, podcasters, and internet radio DJ’s, among others. As internet-based press mediums continue to rapidly gain both popularity and credibility, artists are presented with new ways to promote themselves and their music. The Digital Press Conference gave several of the artists that Ariel Publicity represents a uniquely personal chance at interacting with many of the best people involved in New Media outlets.

The result was a marathon of networking and promotion which, based on my observation, put smiles on everyone’s faces. In fact, witnessing the enthusiasm displayed by both the press and artists was arguably the highlight of the event. Everyone involved appeared to be thoroughly thrilled the goings-on at the conference.

Additionally, the artists were given the opportunity to be interviewed by several of the New Media representatives that attended. Through the interviews, the press gained material for articles, podcasts, and blogs, while the artists gained further exposure. All in all, the Digital Press Conference was a truly fantastic occasion, having brought artists and New Media press together in an environment where they were able to truly take advantage of what each other had to offer.

Paige
The digital press conference was a great experience for me as an intern at Ariel Publicity! Despite the large guest list we managed to keep things organized and the artists all got a lot of great press. Rive Video Promotions was a great sponsor and gave all artists in attendance great press opportunities and were so generous with their time. My favorite thing about the press conference was that I felt I was really part of the team and helped to make things happen and accomplish the goal of the event. Everyone had a great time and that was amazing to see.

The artists seemed to really connect with one another and it was a great forum to establish relationships between independent musicians in the business. I also loved being able to meet everyone and put faces to the names that I see so often on emails as well as in our database. Everyone at the event was incredibly friendly as well as patient and understanding of the need for all artists to talk to the press one at a time. The guests helped to make the event run very smoothly by being so understanding. All in all I felt that it was a great event that went off without a hitch! So much hard work from Ariel, Christina as well as our sponsors went into this event and it was great to see this hard work put into action and realized.

Nicole
The Ariel’s Publicity Digital Press Conference was a huge success! Having as many artists and people of the press present in the amazing upper west side apartment was surprisingly very fun and not as chaotic as it would sound. All the musicians were great, friendly, and very grateful. The best part of the evening for me was being personally thanked by all the artists for assisting in circulating them around to the different digital media people. Knowing that my hard work was actually appreciated felt good. Another great thing about the night was actually meeting the artists face-to-face after getting to know them through their music and bios on our website. Shaking their hands and putting faces to
names was very cool. And lastly the biggest highlight of the night was when I became Rick’s co-host for three segments on his Blog Talk Radio show, On the Road with John & Rick. I would like to give a special thanks for Rive Video Productions, Reverb Nation, and Rock Ridge Music for sponsoring the event.

Keith
Imagine being in a Upper West Side penthouse where the 70’s never died, and when you entered the living room you wonder if someone murdered Kermit the Frog or if your just on an acid trip. Now imagine being in such a psychedelic place with dozens of musical artists, podcasters, internet radio stations, and writers all there for one thing, to hear, create, and promote great music.

Everything I just described to you is exactly where I was just this past Tuesday. While the Philharmonic played along in Central Park I was mingling among some of the most amazing Indie artists I’ve ever had the privilege to meet. From the soothing Soft Rock of Deni Bonet to the hard Hip Hop of Michael Lynche, these are just a few of the artists I got to meet and only the tip of the iceberg of the genres of music I got to hear.

The highlight of my evening was truly getting to know the musical artists. I’ve been working for Ariel Publicity for two months now and the only problem with Cyber Publicity is that you never actually get to see the people you are working for, and I remembered how thrilled I was when I meet Carla Lynne Hall and could finally put a face to the music I had been listening to, not to mention that she is a completely amazing person! Or receiving a t-shirt from the quirky Lena and hearing her story about the time she spent a month in prison. It was so gratifying to meet the artists and see just how happy they were with Ariel and all the work we put together for them, and it was humbling to know that what we do is appreciated and needed.

The only downside to the whole event was the heat! With over 100 people in one New York penthouse things are bound to get hot, and indeed it did. But on the upside, “God it’s hot in here!” became a perfect opener to getting to know the artists and press. That was second only to, “What the hell is up with these troll sculptures?!” which if you’ve ever been to Ariel’s parent’s apartment you’d know just what I was talking about.

All in all, I had a blast and loved getting to know the artists and finding out the most amazing things. Such as why Lena named her CD, “Thank You For Your Sex,” or why Jay Della Valle wrote a book on
mustaches. It was a night a small town Indiana boy like me will never forget, and an occasion I was so grateful to attend.

A few weeks ago I spoke at Bob Baker’s Indie Buzz Bootcamp with 5 other music industry vets: Derek Sivers, Nancy Moran, Bob Baker, Tom Jackson and John Taglieri. We all delivered same message: Make great music that is a full expression of your creative self, then go out and connect your expression to people using technology and with a little learned marketing knowledge and discipline you will earn money. John Taglieri delivered an inspiring talk about what he did to go from full time day job to full time musician
 

As a social networking cheerleader who works full-time creating exposure for artists online I often find myself asking in my head: Why all of my artists be more like John? John Taglieri is a rare breed of musician: A natural sales person who understands the importance of working just as hard on his musical craft as he does on his marketing and sales and for him it comes naturally.
 

I know that this is not the case for a lot of artists who can get fully frustrated with the idea of sales and marketing and they “just want to play.” I’ve heard it thousands of times: “I just want to play, I hate doing that online stuff,” if you hold on to this attitude you will be left behind in the dust.
 

You have to be willing to get on the court and learning to play this game takes time and energy, and the rules change quickly so you need to adapt and go with the flow and not crucify yourself when something is not working. This is where John Taglieri excels - he is open to learning new things and trying them - taking the parts that work and discarding the parts that don’t.
 

This stuff is not brain-surgery and the great news is unlike true musical talent (which, in my humble opinion is not a learned skill - it’s a gift) marketing and sales is TOTALLY LEARNABLE…. and there are thousands of gurus to learn from, endless free information to find online and plenty of people to model (yes - copy the ones that have success and watch success come to you - no need to re-invent the wheel).
 

OK - I’m getting off my soap box now and I want to share some of the best nuggets of John’s talk with you because even though I am friends with him and I work with him he shed some light on what goes on in his mind and I was delighted to get a peek into his thinking. I think you will be too…
 

The BIG Three Questions:

When John decided it was time to quit the day job and REALLY go for it in the music business he looked at himself in the mirror and he asked himself 3 key questions:
 

1. What Do You Want? (Be honest with yourself)
2. How Bad Do You Want It?
3. What Are You Willing To Give Up For It?
 

Question 1: What do you want?
He wanted to make it as a full time musician. Period. What he understood by asking himself this question was that he may not get his ultimate dream of being an international rock star and playing huge stadiums and touring the world in a private jet like Motley Crüe but that he wanted to play music full time and not hold a second job to pay for that dream and he was OK with giving up the private jet part of his dream.
 

When you can give up being totally attached to exactly what you thought it would look like miracles begin to happen and John explains that his dream was to play Giants Stadium - he ended up doing that… 10 times singing the National Anthem
 

Question 2: How bad do you want it?
John talked about his inner motto:
 

“I want what I want and you are either going to help me or get out of my way”
 

This meant that he had to disassociate from some friends that were holding him back by telling him that there was no way he could make it.
 

Question 3: What are you willing to give up for it?
Making it takes something.
If you are really not OK with working really hard to get it than this dream may not be for you… Getting there will take a lot of discipline, patience and time.
 

You may have to go out to dinner less, spend less time with your family, wake up an hour or two early to study whatever it is you need to get better at - it will force you out of your comfort zone and it will take going that extra mile.
 

Visualize what you want
Every year for 5 he wrote on his yearly goals to quit his day job - he did it after 5 years. It took strong will and getting out of his comfort zone to achieve this goal.
 

You have to be able to SEE what you want - visualize what you want to do and always focus on moving forward
John talks about a very important distinction: focus on baby steps vs. big leaps. This is not to say that you should not set a huge goal but think in baby steps while you are working for the big goal. When you achieve a small goal don’t forget to celebrate it and acknowledge that you achieved it. The music business is HARD, not easy to make progress so take the wins when you get them.
 

It may not be what you thought
Not everything you want when you get it turns out to be what you wanted when you get it. If what you get is not the right thing its OK to not keep it. Adapt to what feels right for you.
 

Face the crowd for perspective
To help visualize his dream, John would go to concerts and from the audience, he would turn around and look at the crowd burn the image of the crowd into his head and keep that visual of what a crowd of really excited fans looks like.
 

Don’t let yourself be overly structured
John’s tips:
 

- Use a calendar or outlook to make a schedule - set it and forget it
- Have goals and carry over your goals from year to your
- Contact database management
- Prioritizing daily tasks
- Be flexible for changes -things crop up
- Automate the mundane tasks
 

John presets the tasks like changing the filter in the dogs bowl - then he does not need to think about things that can suck his creative time.
 

Create multiple income streams
John has 5 streams of income that all tie together

1. Plays original gigs
2. Plays cover gigs
3. Runs a music studio out of his home
4. Handles sales & marketing for Cyber PR
5. Owns a CD duplication machine and makes CDs for people
 

Have a strong brand
Branding is key in getting people to remember who you are.
 

In this world where niche marketing is key do not be scared to have a strong brand John’s is: If Edwin McCain and Bon Jovi had a baby you would have me. He then set out to ingrain that into your head it’s on all of his sites - MySpace, Twitter, CD Baby and more.
 

Bands Are Small Companies - DELEGATE!
Do not try to do everything on your own - learn to find people who can help you who are in your league - fire people who are not working as hard as you.
 

- If you are delegating YOU are responsible for making sure the people that you delegate to are accountable - give them dates and times to achieve things and by when
- If you didn’t do it - it’s your fault
- Eliminate negative people and situations
- Stay positive
 

And Finally…Don’t Ever…

• Grow Up
• Say I Can’t
• Give Up
• Blame Others
• Whine
• Bitch
• Moan
• Complain

One key thing I have learned over the past few years of attending workshops and garnering techniques from some of the worlds most successful people is: Those people did not get there alone. Success takes support and this issue of Sound Advice will show you how to create a support group that can help you stay on track and achieve your music career success. It’s called a Mastermind Group.
 

I hear it all of the time - musicians call me up and say: “If only I had a manager,” or a booking agent or a record label etc. And I in turn say: It’s hard to get a manager when you are just starting out However its not hard to get some help!
 

For those of you in bands: Does this scenario sound familiar? One person is in charge of doing all of the business affairs and the other members of the band just show up (sometimes they don’t even show up on time!) If you’ve got a band of hired guns, this sadly is your cross to bear. However, if your band is considered an equal team, I highly suggest that you include your band members in your mastermind group. If you are the only active member of your band on the business side that’s OK - you can build yourself some great support with non- band members.
 

What a Mastermind Group is
A mastermind group is a small team of people that meets one to two times per month, sits down, and brainstorms together, creates goals, makes lists, talks about objectives, and keeps each other accountable so that that you will move forward with your goals and achieve them faster.
 

What a Mastermind Group is Not
A Mastermind is NOT band bitch session where you air your dirty laundry and get angry at each other (We call that a band meeting ). A mastermind meeting is a place for goals and a place for action and a place where you can really focus on yourself and your career.
 

Setting Up Your Mastermind Group
I suggest you create a group of four to six people - if you are married or part of couple and you want to set and achieve goals with your spouse or significant other I suggest a group of 3 couples (it’s OK to have different goals). If you are not part of a couple, I suggest a group of three to four others in addition to you. These people do not have to be in the music business, and it may actually be better if they are not. These people also do not have to be reaching for the same type of goals - they will however need your good input to achieve them, and you will need theirs.
 

Steps To Take

1. Choose fellow masterminders to invite that you admire and that you look up to.
2. Choose people who are strong self-starters and who know how to get the job done, who perhaps own their own businesses. Having someone in your mastermind group who runs a business will really help motivate you.
3. Preset a scheduled date and time every month or twice a month. The third Wednesday of each month, perhaps. Or a dinnertime every first and third Tuesday of the month - Don’t break your commitment - you need to keep this set time to achieve results. How you handle this mastermind is critical to your success.

 
Setting Achievable Goals Is Key
Be careful when setting your goals. Start with ones that you can achieve within the first month (redesigning your newsletter, re-writing your pitch, booking one gig etc) so you feel like you are accomplishing small victories along the way.
 

Please read my previous article on how to set goals and achieve them here:
http://www.arielpublicity.com/sound_advice/setting-goals.html
 

At Your Scheduled Date and Time

1. Come to each meeting with an agenda.
2. Don’t make this a social hour - you are getting together to work - Dive in quick and socialize when you are all done with your meeting.
3. Choose a scribe. One person should be in charge of writing down what happened with measurable goals, actions, and results with dates set for each one and the scribe will e-mail the notes after each and every meeting so that everybody can keep up-to-date with each other.
4. Hold each other accountable - Set check in times to stay on track.

 
Between sessions, you should be in touch a few times to make sure measures are being met.
 

Set up a Wiki
A Wiki is a great way that everybody can stay in touch without losing track of e-mails. I recommend
Ning - http://www.ning.com
PB Wiki - http://www.pbwiki.com/
 

Keep a Reading List
Have a reading list of books and links to articles that may be helpful to the group and reasons why you are recommending these books on your group Wiki. Books on Time management or on small business or on how to tour - whatever you are trying to accomplish there is probably already a book or an article out there.
 

Join My New Mastermind Group For Extra Support
I just started a mastermind group that already has 80 artists in it helping each other out with goals. To get a free membership all you have to do is purchase my book: Music Success in 9 Weeks http://www.cyberprbook.com
 

Have Fun
The last piece of advice I’ll give is This process should be fun!
 

This is you creating your career as a musician and it should feel like a joy, not a dreaded homework assignment.
 

I’d love to hear about your Masterminds. Please report them to me at Ariel@arielpublicity.com

Google, in my humble opinion, is the most amazing invention since anything else I can really think of. And Google is not just a big search engine, although it would still be awesome if that’s all it did. Google is, quite simply, a portal truly puts all of the worlds electronic information at your fingertips – there’s a good reason why the word “Google” has become synonymous with searching online. Here are 3 Hot Tips designed to help you through all of Google’s awesomeness and use it to your benefit.

1. Google Alerts
Have you ever spent hours trying to track down articles on a certain subject, topic or even about your band / your brand? With Google Alerts, whatever words you select will be searched by Google and emails will be delivered to in your in-box.

To Setup A Google Alert

1. Visit http://www.google.com/alerts
2. Choose your search terms.
   1. You may include wildcard characters (*) to expand the search to find words containing the search terms, i.e. “fi*” will return results for “fish,” as well as “ficus”
   2. Use quotation marks (“ Cyber PR ”) to search for only the exact words in the search, in the exact order entered
3. Choose the type of alert you would like.
4. Select the frequency of alert emails.(Daily works best)
5. Enter the email to which you would like the alerts emailed

2. Google Blog Search
This is basically a filter for only searching Blogs; and with 80 million Blogs out there, on top of all the websites, this is a great filter for all the noise. This is also a great place to track your band on blogs. To search on Google’s Blog search, go to this link: http://blogsearch.google.com/

3. Google RSS Reader:
FIRST: Watch this video: It only takes 3 minutes and 43 seconds
http://www.commoncraft.com/rss_plain_english
Now that you know exactly what this is from watching RSS in Plain English,
Setting up your RSS reader is the perfect way for getting the information you want (not only from blogs but from also from other sites you frequent) to come to you instead of having to check constantly to see what has been updated.

4. Gmail
If you still have an AOL or hotmail address, you’re in trouble. Gmail just may be the best e-mail program/website on the planet. Many bloggers and new media people use Gmail and it shows your in the know, so get signed up. Just a few great features of Google e-mail are searchable by topic or word and they provide a huge amount of storage space.

Using Gmail as your default -mail host, you can set up an URL and add GoDaddy for 7.95, then point it to the server and voila! You have a customized e-mail addresses for free.

5. iGoogle – Your customizable home page
Whether RSS, certain news links or weather, Google home pages tools can certainly help you. Google does not have to be this one-frame box. By opening a Google account, you also gain access to iGoogle, your personal home page. Here you can add just about any sort of information you like; from the silly, such as small Flash games, to the more serious such as tracking mentions of your or your brand’s name on the Web.

6. Froogle
I love getting a great deal and the Google shopping site, Froogle, will help you find all of the sites and tell you where to get the best price. For example, my best friend’s wedding dress that was $1,500 in New York City, was $695 on Froogle. This is a great place to search for deals: http://www.froogle.com

Hope these 6 Hot tips help!

 
I usually blog about marketing and PR tips but recently, Kaiser Cartel came to my office and we got into a deep yet brief discussion about children and how they learn (Courtney teaches music to children with special needs) and it struck me that I have never really talked in depth about Why I work in music for a living and I want to share my story.

 
I often get asked why I’m in this business and what draws me to it, and I jokingly say that I dated a bass player in college…which is true, but my love of music started way before that, back farther than I can even remember. And I have a visceral connection to music. In my 15 years since I’ve worked in this industry and of the thousands of people I’ve met, from promoters to radio DJs to club owners to label owners to marketing people to publicists, you may have different philosophies and different income brackets, but one thing bonds everyone that I’ve met. We all love music…. But we all have very different reasons for being in this business. My Reason – music makes the world make sense….

 
At age six, I was thrown out of a prestigious private school on the Upper East Side called Dalton, where New York City’s celebrated intellectuals, and rich and famous send their children. Diana Ross’ daughter was in my class, as were members of Ralph Lauren’s family (and many more) and I was very happy there. In the middle of second grade my parents got bad news - I was not going to be invited back for third grade, due to the fact that I was not learning as fast as the rest of the class. My reading and writing skills were below average and Dalton couldn’t keep me. In a panic, my parents began a long journey to help connect me with someone; a tutor or a teacher who could help get me up to speed, and I spent countless hours with tutors learning things that most other kids were picking up naturally in school.

 
This pattern went on for years and even after my parents enrolled me into a less competitive grade school, I spent my lunch hours and my after school time in tutoring. One of my tutors discovered something that changed my life; I couldn’t memorize multiplication tables or understand how to conjugate French verbs and reading was an absolute nightmare of a struggle, but I could retain lyrics to songs – lots of songs. Music class was the only thing that I did not struggle with because I had dead on pitch. I couldn’t read music, but if it was played once, I could sing it along with the rest of the class effortlessly. As soon as my tutor began to teach me in singing, I began to catch up with the rest of my classmates. I learned to rhyme my times tables to my favorite song and that made it easy to memorize. Singing and rhyming everything, from the state capitals, to proper grammar got me through. I graduated high school as an A student.

 
I stopped singing the day I finished college, but throughout my university years I sang in two campus a cappella groups and I was the only one in both groups who couldn’t read music.

 
My connection to music, to listening to music, to seeing music played live, and to being in community with artists that create music totally drives me. I moved to Boulder Colorado in 1994 because music there took me there – the artists that were playing live there, the venues that they were playing in took me there (and I had the privilege of working in those venues) and my whole life at that time centered around building a business that could support me in that community.

 
My natural underlying talent was always communication. My current passion is learning and teaching others how we can all use social networking and Internet Marketing and community to increase our footprints and to make more money. There is no magic pill that can solve the quandary that the “new” music business has presented us with but I’ve overcome some seemingly impossible personal battles and I’m up for the challenge.

 
There’s one thing I learned through having the life that I’ve had: Everything is learnable and achievable if you set your mind to it and you work to get there. It is critical that you insert your piece about joy and expression – if you are playing music that’s the easy part. If you are a musician, it is a calling, and making music is not a choice. It’s what you have to do. And I can’t imagine being around people who do anything else…

BOOK REVIEW:

 

Now Is Gone: A Primer on New Media for Executives and Entrepreneurs by Geoff Livingston and Brian Solis & How It Relates To PR & Marketing In The “New” Music Business

 

“The PR revolution will be socialized. Engage or die.”

 

“Communications have evolved more in the last 10 years, than in the previous 100.”
- Now is Gone

 

Now Is Gone addresses the issues that the marketing and PR world are currently facing in the new world of online social networks, transparent communication and the rise of the customer as the critic. This book struck a nerve that is so close to my own experience as a recovering traditional publicist and I have to share it’s message with you. If you are handling your own PR and marketing this book should be at the top of your required reading list.

 

Incredulous musicians consistently ask why I gave up handling traditional PR (my firm handles online PR only). Over the years I have placed thousands of articles, calendar listings, TV bookings and radio interviews and I was good at it, but the truth is, I began to loathe it. Two things contributed to this:
1. The PR game never changed – it was the same grind every day and creatively I felt stifled.
2.It was getting harder and harder to manifest results for my artists (and creating lackluster results was no fun).

 

Now Is Gone addresses why these 2 things became so real for me. The highlights follow and I have put them into perspective so that they apply directly to the music business and musicians throughout, I have quoted from this wonderful book heavily.

 

Engaging Directly Is No Longer Unprofessional
“Social media is exposing PR’s weaknesses and calling for reform…this is our chance, not only to work with traditional journalists, but engage directly with a new set of accidental influencers, also know as enthusiasts or citizen journalists. We can talk with customers now also content producers directly.” As a musician this puts you at an interesting advantage. It used to be somewhat unprofessional to approach the media without a publicist. The opposite can be the case today if you choose the wrong publicist to represent you online.

 

Participation Is Not Optional
The good news is it has never been easier to create a community around your brand. There are no more gatekeepers; there are now self-appointed gatekeepers who contribute to their communities in a real way. You must participate and this book argues that: “If you want to survive in this economy, you can’t just sit on the sidelines, those who participate genuinely, will succeed. Everyone else will either have to catch up or miss the game…. Participating here is not optional, how effectively you participate (online) will determine the success or failure of your company in the long-term.”

 

An NYU study that came out this past February proved concisely that if a CD is reviewed or mentioned 30 times before its release on blogs, it will sell 3 to 4 times better than if its not mentioned. This is a powerful and direct argument to begin participating online and get directly engaged with bloggers. One key piece of advice to keep in mind: “Once you send your pitch, let it go. That means do not follow-up or harass the blogger/content creator at all. Pressure equals bad write ups about your organization.” So if you get no response after your try to reach a blogger move on. There are 80 million more to choose from.

 

Observe Before You Dive In
“If a marketer is bent on exploiting anything, it will likely bite him in the ass,”
says Todd Defren, principal at SHIFT Media. This was always the case of course, but
in the social media world, the difference is that you’ll be found out more quickly,
and the punishment can be harsher and more long lasting. My advice is to start any
social media campaign by listening and quietly participating as a user, not a
marketer.”

 

Press Releases Don’t Work Anymore
“…As a society, we’ve gone from the era of mass production, mass merchandising, and mass marketing to one where customization is key . . . as far as most reporters and editors are concerned, [press releases are] over-produced, they lack differentiation, they generally aren’t relevant, and they vast majority are not worth coverage.”
- Sally Saville Hodge

 

Publicists were trained to do PR in a certain way: write a press release that tells the story and send it around to the media. Journalists will then pick up on the story the release and Voila! (This, of course is a way simplified summary).

 

In the last few years journalists have been receiving too many useless press releases that contained information that was not useful to their readers. “The online environment changed into a truly socially interactive world, where content users or readers have just as much impact as content makers. In this new era, social media networks with Wikipedia, Facebook, YouTube, and the asset of blogs are constantly evolving and changing the way people perceive communications.”

 

The Commodity Online is Time
And now the bad news: This takes WORK. Social communities take time to build up. People will not trust you and follow you overnight. This is where many artists have deep frustration with social networking. Stick with it. It may take months and even years in some cases.

 

“In order to reach people, we have to figure out who they are and where they go for information. You’ll quickly discover that a magic net doesn’t exist.“ This is an amazing point. It takes trial an error to discover how to connect and who to connect to.

 

“Content creators must diligently engage the community with appealing content for the life of the new media initiative, not just for the first few months.” So stick with it. Regular and consistent contribution is key.

 

Part of participating in a social network is investing the necessary time
to create valuable information for the network.

 

Let It Go
“You must be prepared to give up control of your message, know the community you intend to participate in, commit resources base business transparency in full.” Musicians tend to like to be in control of their art which makes sense – BUT be warned Social networking is not your art or your music – let it go and let people have it, comment on it, use it and it’s OK.

 

“Companies risk brand reputation by not participating, but at the same time they risk brand perception if they approach new media with a mindset of message and brand control without regard for two-way conversations.”

 

It’s NOT About You … It’s About THEM
“Inspire your community with real exciting information. Don’t waste their
time with product details.” I learned a HUGE lesson when I launched Cyber PR – I was spending a LOT of my time explaining the way the site worked and how it worked to both artists and journalists and then I realized: Nobody cared…. They wanted to know what was in it for them and that’s what everyone wants to know at every moment when engaging online. So, answer the question: What’s in it for them?

 

“Part of participating in a social network is investing the necessary time
to create valuable information for the network.” and I realized all I needed to do was consistently deliver value.

 

“One of the biggest sources of corporate failures in new media is treating the media form as a propaganda mechanism.” This is why your Hey check me out messages that you are blasting on MySpace are falling on deaf ears. You must say something about THEM first to engage. Get your self-hype out of your head and be a contribution.

 

New media destroys the idea of targeting your audience. Why? Because there is no more audience. The single notion that one message inspires everyone is absolutely ludicrous in the new world of community marketing.

 

“Blogging mostly has indirect effects. You are building an online resume
for yourself that is going to reward you in ways you really can’t predict. Honor
your readers’ time, give them great stuff to think about.”

 

“Customers today expect to be understood and they expect to be listened to.” So make it a two way street. Make SURE that people can comment back and let their voices be heard.

 

Goals & Measurement Are Key
“It is important to know what the team is trying to accomplish, and that means creating measurement goals for the content; knowing how many readers you want, how many views you need, what image you hope to convey.” If you are working alone that’s OK begin to set goals for yourself so you can achieve benchmarks to help motivate you and keep you in momentum.

 

To Sum Up
Social Networking and building relevant communities are critical in this brave new online world. Those who participate will benefit deeply. Those who don’t will get left in the lurch scratching their heads wondering what happened. Get in the game but do it with some strategy. To blindly dive in is not the best advice. Follow the new rules and reap the benefits.

 

Buy Now Is Gone
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Read The Ongoing Conversation by The Authors

Buzz Bin
http://www.livingstonbuzz.com/blog/

 
PR 2.0
http://www.briansolis.com/